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Woods and Waters

John McCoy is the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette’s award-winning outdoors writer. His "Woods & Waters" page appears weekly in the Sports section of the Sunday Gazette-Mail.

In 32 years of outdoors writing, John has had articles published in Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Bowhunter, North American Whitetail, Hatches and other publications. His works have earned more than 50 state, regional and national awards for writing and photography.

The powerful rapids of West Virginia’s New River have claimed another fisherman. Richard Dale Harrison, 31, of Red House drowned near Terry. Harrison apparently slipped while fishing. Some nearby campers saw him fall in and tried to throw him a rope and a cooler, but weren’t able to reach him.

The accounts claiming “the Indians called the New River the ‘river of death'” are most likely the product of 20th Century rural legend, rather than being based on factual information, as no written accounts or records of this reference can be found that were writen or published prior to the 1950’s. The closest match to the “river of death” reference, with at least some degree of historical credibility, are accounts claiming the Shawnee called the river Keninskeha, meaning “river of evil spirits.”